Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1887-12-16


I and be sustained Dy the ar.
what are your sensations on the
I way down ?"
@The first hundred feet are the worst.
/ The parachute does not III at once. and
7 so It Is like falling sheer through that
much space. And that Is another rea-
son Why the drop has to be made a lit
tie carefully; otherwise / might get
| turned over, and though, Of course, if
1 hold on, twill come all right, but the
wrench on my arms would be violent,
and the thing would shake more. 1t
shakes quite enough now, assure yOus
/ although have improved little on it
IN that respect. YOu can fancy what
fail Of hundred feet might be, though
It ia pretty hard to imagine it if you
/ have never been through the thing.
| The sensation is not altogether pleas
ant. 1t is a giddy sinking through the
/ air. The condensation of the atmO-
sphere under the parachute, which is
shaped like An umbrella, to catch the
I air more readily, brings me up sud-
/ denly. 1t Is almost like Jerk, and TO
/ people looking at me / seem to stop for
a moment. After that the descent Is
more gradual, though it Is quite fast
enough for ordinary purposes. The
rate Of descent is about ], 200 feet
minute. I have given the point Of re-
sistance which the parachute offers with
/ a certain weight and when it is of a
certain diameter a good deal Of study.
The sensation Is pleasant enough IN
summer. Floating down through the
air in that way is cool 1t is something
| like coming down a rapidly running
| elevator. but your legs are free, and
you feel your body with nothing
around it.
he oscillations begin, however,
I and / ON swayed from side to side like
a pendulum. Sometimes 1 have been
swung out at an angle of fifty or sixty
| degrees. The top part Of the parachute,
the umbrella part, does not sway IN
! this manner. If 1t fills out all right
there is nothing to fear there. But
sometimes it does not, and then mat
ters are ticklish."
How do you Iand-ightIy, or is it
| hard to escape getting bruised?"
Generally, 1 have landed without
doing myself any harm. When I see
/ am within six or seven feet OF the
! ground droD. ] can land pretty well
on my toes, and if feel a momentum
which would be likely to throw me
violently down, 1 try 70 fall on my
right side. and sometimes 1 turn three
or four sOmersaults. This breaks the
| force. OF course, 1 can exercise no
| control over myself while 1 am in the
air. 1 have to land wherever chance
brings me. If it is a good height from
which L drop, and there is a strong
wind, 1 can easily come down at a
place a mile or more from the place on
the earth underneath the spot I jumped
from. 1 am carried by the wind so that
do not feel it blowing on me very
much. When I make an ascension near
the water, like that at RockaWay Beach
this summer, I take up a life preserver
with me, so II / fall into the water at
too great a distance from the shore to
swim, need not drown"
~DO you feel any nervousness or fear
In undertaking the feat?"
81 always know that there is danger
IN it. couldn't know as much about
the subject as / do and be ignorant of
that. But do not feel much trepida-
ton IN undertaking it. The chances
are that everything will come out all
right, as they have done in all my de-
scents. Then there is an excitement
about it. 1t is q funny thing, though,
to be performing q feat for an audi
ence so far below you that you cannot
see anything but a dark spot on the
earth. When you get up so very high
IN balloon do not think that a per
son Is as inclined to feel dizzy as at O
much less height from which he can
compare the relative attitudes. But I
am not subject to dizziness. 1t doesn't
go we'll with ballOOnists, and, besides,
my training as a circus man has got me